MONTICELLO-The Oak Grove Warriors defeated the Lawrence CountyCougars 3-2, in 8 innings, in high school baseball action Saturdayafternoon at Jimmie Davis Park. The Warriors trailed 2-0 throughoutmost of the afternoon, but knotted the game with 2 runs in thesixth, and won it in the eighth. It was the final regular seasongame for both teams.

With the win, Oak Grove improved to 14-7 on the season. LawrenceCounty fell to 19-7. Both teams won their respective divisions andwill enter state playoff action next weekend.

“We played a good game,” said fifth-year Lawrence County coachCory Keyes. “We pitched and defended very well. We just failed toadd runs after that good first inning. We’ve got to give credit toOak Grove’s pitching and defense for that.”

In the bottom of the first, Lawrence County scored 2. FordJohnson reached on an error, and Willie Buckley, Scott Votaw, andWesley Wilson followed with singles.

It remained 2-0 until the bottom of the sixth. LCHS starterJohnson worked 4 scoreless innings, limiting Oak Grove to 2 hits.Scott Votaw relieved Johnson in the fifth, and quickly retired theWarriors. In the sixth, however, Oak Grove got consecutive hitsfrom Dylan Sobiesk, James McMahon, and Casey Comfort, andeventually tied the game on a wild pitch.

Neither team scored in the seventh, but Oak Grove got a single,a sacrifice bunt, and an RBI single to win it in the eighth. In thebottom of the eighth, Cougar Conner Oakes made a bid to tie thegame, but his fly to deep left-center was hauled in right in frontof the fence.

Casey Comfort started and went 6 innings for Oak Grove. Heallowed 7 hits, walked 1, and struck out 4. Side-armer HunterCurtis pitched the final 2 innings and got the win. He retired all6 batters he faced, striking out 3 of them.

Third baseman James McMahon had a big game for Oak Grove. Bothof his 2 hits played into the Warriors’ scoring rallies, andMcMahon also stood out defensively.

“He was a difference-maker in this game,” Keyes said. “He was inthe middle of both of their scoring innings, and he absolutely tooksome runs away from us with his glove.”

Scott Votaw led Lawrence County with 2 hits. Johnson, Buckley,Wilson, Tyler Reeves, and Dillon Lee each had 1. Votaw worked 4innings, allowing 6 hits, and striking out 3. He absorbed just hissecond loss against 8 wins.

“Ford did a great job for us,” Keyes said, “and our defenseplayed very well behind him. We were going to throw Scott three orfour innings, regardless of the score, to get our rotation set forthe playoffs. He did a good job, too.”